EPHESIANS

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EPHESIANS 5:1-6

EPHESIANS 5:1-6

"1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. 3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 5:1-6)

According to the typical NEST interpretation of this passage, people who are spiritually saved can lose their salvation by being disobedient and sinning. If the saved people are immoral or impure, then God marks them as immoral or impure. Subsequently, this is how the saved person is said to lose their previous state of salvation. Continuous repentance from sin is what is said to bring back the salvation at each repentance, and ultimately is said to secure salvation if accomplished before physical death.

The interpretations of the NEST are wrong concerning this passage. Let us, then, see what Paul is teaching the Ephesians, and what the Holy Spirit means to use for our edification. Verse 1 of our passage under study starts out with,

"1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;" (Ephesians 5:1)

It is imperative that we understand that this one sentence is absolutely vital to the proper understanding of the rest of the passage. The reason why this passage is important is because of the key phrase, "as beloved children." We must recognize that whenever a person is born-again spiritually, judicially, and positionally, that person identifies with Christ in a special way. What happens is that the person becomes a child of God in respect to Christ, Who is the Messianic Child of God; Who is in fact, God's only begotten Son. Paul says in Romans 8:29,

"For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;" (Romans 8:29)

Christ is the firstborn, yet He has many brothers. When people are born again, they have died to their old self, and now they are alive in Christ. This whole spiritual action creates sonship in Christ. It is an adoption by which we are made into children of God, but only in Christ. To be a brother of Christ is a miracle work that is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, and this miracle creates sons of God as children of God. This is what Paul meant when he said,

"14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a Spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God," (Romans 8:14-16)

Saved people cry out "Abba Father." They do it by the Spirit because only saved people are children of God. Notice that the language for our childhood as saved people is that we have received a Spirit of adoption as sons; more specifically, "sons of God." Sons of God, means sonship. It means salvation. This is the language that we need to stick in our minds at the outset of our exegetical study because it illumines Paul's whole point. Let us quickly look at this a bit more; not just for the sake of clearing up this passage, but also because all saved people need to know this. In Romans 8:19 Paul says of the believer's sonship,

"For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." (Romans 8:19)

Later, Paul says,

"And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God.'" (Romans 9:26)

Paul gives sonship details in Galatians,

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:26)

Saved people are children of God in Christ right now. What they were before becoming God's children is explained in a few more sentences from our Ephesians passage under study;

"you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light," (Ephesians 5:8)

All Christians were formerly darkness. Now in salvation, Christians are called "children of light." Now notice that we see a connection; "children of God" are also called "children of light." Paul explains these extreme states that are opposed to one another, and far removed from one another in Colossians, where Paul says he gives,

"... thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the set apart ones in Light. 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:12-14)

Salvation is the great rescue where certain people have been purchased in Christ, thus attaining forgiveness of sins. In salvation, people are transferred by miracle out of the domain of darkness and into the current aspect of the kingdom of God's beloved Son, in Light. Peter puts it this way,

"But you are an elect race, A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;" 1 Peter 2:9

Darkness is the place of all who are unsaved, all who are unredeemed, all who are not God's possession, all who are not an elect race of siblings according to Christ the Light. Everyone there is in darkness and has darkness, in a sense, running in their spiritual veins. All of us who are saved were there once. Now in salvation, we are children of God because of One Child of God. Our citizenship is in heaven at this very moment (cf. Philippians 3:20). Such a state is the exact opposite of what, and where we were before. Before, we were born into the world system as children of Satan because of Adam who chose to be a child of Satan. This darkness is where all saved people were once before, and this is what the identification of all saved people was once before. This cosmic rescue is what Paul's great commission was all about, where God drafted Paul into service by committing cosmic violence to Paul's (as Saul) eyes against Paul's so-called free will. The Lord drafted Paul on the road to Damascus, but in the spiritual realm, God drafted Paul while Paul was in the domain of darkness. God pierced the man's eyes with the light of His glory, and then God said, without consulting Paul's darkened mind (a mind that was blackened against Christ and Christians);

"17... I am sending you, ..." (Acts 26:17)

[This describes God's authoritarian intention in this action of hard determination as "the Light" in cosmically rescuing a man, who at the moment, was in total opposition and persecution of the Lord of glory. The reason why God did this to Paul, was so that Paul would be an instrument in God's hands;]

"... to open their eyes ..." (Acts 26:17)

[Christ Jesus means that He is commissioning Paul to operate by the illuminating Spirit through the word. Paul, who is physically blind at this point, is not opening anyone's eyes on his own. God is the one who closes and opens eyes, like for example blinding Paul here and removing the scales later on. In Romans 11:8, Paul says, "God gave them a Spirit of stupor, eyes to see not ..." Paul knows this. Paul knows that God is the one who both closes, and brings light to eyes and hearts--not just in the world, but also in the church. This is why Paul prayed for further enlightenment to the Asian Christians that our Ephesians 5:1-6 passage was originally directed to, where Paul says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." On the road to Damascus, we have God's great commissioning of Paul as a child of darkness before Paul ever professed Christ as Savior, and God sovereignly says,]

"I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been set apart by faith in Me.'" (Acts 26:18)

Here is the picture so far:

A) Christians are children of God;

B) being children of God, means being sons of God;

C) being Sons of God, Christians are children of light;

D) though now being children of light, all Christians were once in the darkness, which is called the domain of Satan, which is a contrast that really describes what people were before salvation.

Of course, before salvation, Christians were lost, but there is something else that is part of all of this preliminary study that shapes up the key to understanding our Ephesians passage. It will become more evident as we proceed. Jesus explains it in a few places,

"37 And He said, 'The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, ..." (Matthew 13:37)

[Jesus is the one who sows the good seed]

"38 and the field is the world;'" (Matthew 13:38)

[We must pay special attention to the next part of the passage, where Jesus says,]

"... and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels." (Matthew 13:38-39)

The point in laying this scriptural foundation, is to recognize that Jesus describes tares. Tares are plants, (which are probably Darnel plants of the Judean region) that look like wheat shortly before harvest but are really not wheat. It is only at the harvest season that they become manifest as tares. But what is of special note for us at this time is that Jesus identifies the tares as "the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil." Jesus is using the kind of language that describes what kind of sons the unsaved people in the world actually are--particularly the unsaved people that get in among God's field of His remnant of true believers. Unsaved people will get in among real saved people and sometimes it is hard to tell the truly spiritually saved apart from the fakes. Jesus made a statement about the religious leadership of Jerusalem that demonstrates this. Jesus said to the Pharisees who oppose Him,

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44)

Jesus says that these religious leaders were, in fact, of a father that is a grotesque evil being--the devil. They are in the dark dominion of Satan as His children. Jesus also describes the devil's nature. He says that what comes from the devil's nature is murder, and lies.

With all of this foundational study underneath us, we can get back into Ephesians again. Before we get into examining the passage used for the Not Eternally Saved Theory, let us take a moment to look at Ephesians 2:2-3 with all these things in mind that we just spread out on the table; namely, sonship, and light and darkness. Pay special attention to what Paul says preceding the NEST passage, in chapter 2,

"... you formerly walked according to the course of this world, ..." (Ephesians 2:2)

[Paul is saying to his audience that they "formerly walked according to the course of the world," because they (as the pronoun "you") are now saved. Paul goes on,]

"... according to the prince of the power of the air, ..." (Ephesians 2:2)

[Remember, this is the devil in the domain of darkness; a place also known as the dominion of Satan. Paul goes on, and what Paul is about to say is a very significant key to unlocking the meaning of the Ephesians 5:1-6 passage used by the NEST. Paul says,]

"... of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:2)

[This is so important; "Sons of disobedience," is a very important definition that we are looking for in Ephesians which will unlock the whole meaning of Ephesians 5:1-6. Ephesians 2:2, will bring Ephesians 5:1-6 out of darkness of a false NEST interpretation, and into its proper light. Keep in mind this term. "sons of disobedience." Now, let us look at what Paul says next,]

"Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." (Ephesians 2:3)

The nature of the sons of disobedience is the nature of children of wrath. The nature of the children of wrath is to be living in the lusts of the flesh of the sin-bound fallen race of Adam. The desires of that nature were always indulged as a state of being. This is a history lesson. The saved Ephesians were there, but are now no longer there. The main point being this: The children of wrath are the sons of disobedience, and the prince of the power of the air, which is Satan and the devil, is the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. This is a fundamental truth to understand, because God's Holy Spirit is not the spirit that is working in the sons of disobedience. The Holy Spirit is working in the children of God, (cf. Romans 8:16); who are the children of light, (cf. Ephesians 5:8); who are the sons of God, (cf. Romans 8:14 and 19, Galatians 3:26) and so forth. With these facts fresh on our minds, now is the perfect time to get back into our passage and consider the opening once again. Remember what it was:

"1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;" (Ephesians 5:1)

[What we recognize is that Paul means for saved people to be imitators of their Father-God as God's very own beloved children. We also know that we are only beloved children because of being in beloved Christ, His beloved Son (Who is the definitive son of obedience), as we recognize from Colossians 1:14; "His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." There is no other way to be beloved children other than being in Christ who is the beloved Son. Notice that Paul does not say be imitators of God as children who love God. Paul says be imitators of God as children who are loved by God (ie, "beloved;" also "dearly loved children" NET). Christians only imitate God their Father because God loves them as their Father, and of course it is because God loves them that Christians love God. This is foundational. Now we can look at the rest,]

"2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." (Ephesians 5:2)

[Christians are beloved children, so the urging is for those who are saved to walk in love just as they are loved by Christ through his offering and sacrifice. Paul goes on,]

"3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among set apart ones; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks." (Ephesians 5:1-6)

[There should not be any of those "not fitting" things, because children of God are the set apart ones (saints). Sons of God should not let immorality or impurity or greed or filthiness or silly talk, or coarse jesting be named among them. Those things are not fitting for God's family. Paul says it is "proper" not to do those things. This is good preaching for any child of God. From here, Paul goes on into what the NEST interpretation highlights out of the whole context of Ephesians,]

"5 For this you know ..." (Ephesians 5:5)

[Now we know that Paul is talking to beloved children. The "you" that know "this" are sons of God. As we continue with Ephesians 5:5-6, we absolutely must pay attention to the identification at the end of verse 6. It is the last three words that are in direct contrast to the identification of the beloved children, who are sons of God, as we read,]

"5 For this you [sons of God] know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon <the sons of disobedience>." (Ephesians 5:5-6)

We notice that the last three words of Ephesians 5:6 describe "the sons of disobedience," which are unsaved people, in contrast to the dearly loved children, who are the sons of God. We started this study by laying the initial foundation of scripturally defining both the sons of God, and the sons of disobedience, so that at this point the distinction of who Paul is talking about, and who he is not talking about, would become more apparent. These immoral persons; (these covetous persons, these idol worshippers of Ephesus that Paul is saying have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, and are the ones who experience God's wrath), are the ones that exist as not being sons of light. Since they are not sons of God, but rather sons of disobedience, then we conclude that God's wrath does not come upon the saved. It comes upon the unsaved who never were God's children in the first place. This is why understanding our sonship in Christ is so vitally important to interpreting this passage. Paul identifies the "sons of disobedience" two chapters earlier, saying,

"1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:1)

In this, we recognize that Paul is talking about the two races. The holy race of 1 Peter 2:9 which is the sons of God, and the lost race of Adam which is the sons of disobedience who are void of the miracle of salvation. This is not a lose one's salvation passage. Rather, it is an urging to true sons of God to not sin like the natural affinities of the sons of disobedience of the world. Since the sons of God are so radically different than the unsaved sons of disobedience who will never inherit the eternal inheritance, then saved people should not act like them. It is not proper for people in God's family to live in sin. Therefore, Paul is exhorting to not let any of those things be named among you.